Building start
Everything you see within the Active Worlds browser was built by someone. Building remains one of the most popular activities in the public universes. Anything can be built, from personal homes to sprawling futuristic cities on far off worlds. The only thing that limits you is your imagination.
Popular Building Worlds: To begin building, you must either own a world or use one of the public building worlds. The public building worlds provide a great place to begin learning how to build. A partial list of the most popular building worlds that are currently open to building by any member of the public includes:
- AW (Alpha World)
- Yellow
- There
- Mars
- Winter
- AWReunion
Before you Start
Most people want to jump right in and begin building, but it is recommended that you take some time and get used to moving and interacting within the browser. Knowing how to move and interact within the browser will make learning how to build that much easier.
When you are ready to begin building, the first thing is to find a plot of empty land. This should be close enough to another "build" so that you can create a starter object, but far enough away so that you have room to build. As you learn more about building, you'll want to expand your area, which may mean that you will have several different areas in different worlds where you build. Remember to set a teleport so that you remember your build locations.
Once you have found a location, begin by claiming your land. You do this by completely covering it with a ground object. If you fail to do that, anyone would then be able to build on any land that you have not covered.
Getting Started
The "guts" of building with the Active Worlds Browser takes place in the Object Properties dialog box.
To display any object's properties, simply right-click on the object. The Object Properties dialog box appears, and you can view the object's Description, Object filename and Action in the various fields, plus the owner's Citizen ID and the date that object was last modified. If you own that object (you were the first one to put it on a vacant piece of land), you are allowed to make changes in the appearances or actions, and you're also allowed to move it to other pieces of vacant land or your own property.
Building new objects with the Active Worlds Browser is a three-step process. First, you'll need to find some existing object to copy, or "clone" -- that's the only way you can create a new object. This will be your starter object. Then, using the mouse, keyboard, button bar or the Object menu in the Object Properties dialog box, you move the object to the desired location on your property. If you want to turn the object into an entirely different object, you can change its Object field in the Object Properties dialog box . Finally, you can also change the object's Description and Action -- just click on the desired text box and type in your changes.
You can only build on areas of a world that don't already contain other people's objects. This means that the first thing you'll need to do is scout out an unused area and "stake your claim". Try to find an area that is big enough to build what you want, and that is not part of another person's property.
The only thing that is necessary to claim a piece of land as your own is to place some of your own objects on it. Any object you build will be stamped with your citizen number; you will be the only one allowed to move, change or delete that object.
As mentioned above, the first thing you want to do is cover your new land with many large, flat pieces (such as walks or floors). You can always remove them later when you are ready to build in that exact spot.
Selecting a Starter Object
Find an object that's near to where you want to start building. This can be any selectable item: someone else's object, a piece of the street, it really doesn't matter. You will soon have a chance to change a copy of this object into something else. Right-click on the object once to select it. Then press the INSERT key or Duplicate button to make a copy of the object. The new copy will appear behind the original. The yellow rectangle that indicates a selected object is now around your copy. You're ready to move your starter object to your new homestead.
Moving an Object
You can use the mouse, keyboard, or toolbar to move objects that you've selected. You can also use the Object menu.
The arrow keys move the selected object forwards, backwards and sideways.
The plus key on the numeric keypad raises your object above the ground.
The minus key on the numeric keypad drops your object back down. Be careful! It's possible to sink an object below the ground where you can't see it.
The Page Up and Page Down keys rotate your object 15 degrees around the Y axis (the Y axis points straight up and down in Active Worlds.) 15 degrees means you'll have to hit these keys twelve times to make an object spin halfway around.
You can also use the / and * keys and the Home and End keys on the numeric keypad to rotate the object around the X and Z axes, respectively. Using the right combination of X, Y, and Z-axis rotation, an object can be placed at any possible orientation. You can also left-click and drag on a selected object to free rotate it into any orientation.
Holding down the SHIFT key allows you to make smaller adjustments whenever you're moving an object. Holding down both the SHIFT and the CTRL key simultaneously allows extremely precise adjustments when moving an object.
You can also use the mouse to move objects. To move an object with the mouse, simply right-click on the object once with the mouse in order to select it, then right-click on the object again and hold while moving the mouse. The object will move around in the horizontal plane. To move the object up and down using the mouse, hold the CTRL key down while dragging. As with the arrow keys, if you hold down SHIFT while dragging, the object will move at smaller increments, allowing more precise placement.
Note that in order to drag an object with the mouse, it must first be selected. This is to avoid accidentally moving objects while selecting them.
If you have a mouse with a mouse-wheel, you can also rotate the selected object(s) in place by turning the wheel. In addition, clicking the mouse-wheel while an object or objects are selected duplicates those objects (the same as pressing the Insert key).
Once you have moved the object to where you want it, simply left-click the mouse or close the Object Properties dialog box to deselect ('drop') the object in place. If you want to keep moving the object, just select it again by right-clicking on it. If you want to delete an object, use the DELETE key or button while the object is selected.
Tip: It's a good idea to first drop a copy of your starter object at its final destination, and then select it again before you change the object type. Otherwise, your starter object might disappear if you accidentally mistype the new name!
Building Sounds
Building sounds can be turned on or off in the General Settings dialog.
F.A.Q's
Q. Can other people change my property? A. Anything you build is uniquely stamped with your citizen number from that point on. Should anyone else try to delete or move your object, they will receive an error.
Q. Someone else's objects are in my way. Can Activeworlds Inc. delete them for me? A. Not at this time. In this situation, your best bet is to attempt to contact the owner of the property directly (try using a telegram) and asking them if they will move it or delete it.
Q. I'd like my friend to build on my property. Is there a way I can do this without giving him or her my password? A. Consider using a privilege password if you want someone else to be able to build or change your own property. Never give your password to anyone!
Q. What does the error "You are not allowed to encroach into another's property" mean? A. Encroaching occurs when you try to build too close to someone else's property. Remember that you cannot place your own objects anywhere above or below the property of others, even if their property is far up in the sky or far underground. The best way to avoid this problem is to start your building projects far away from anyone else's property to begin with.
Q. What does "Only registered objects can be used for construction" mean? A. "Registered objects" are objects that have been approved for building with in a particular world by the world's owner(s). In most public building worlds, you can only build with registered objects. The most common cause for this error is mis-typing an object name while placing a new object. Contact the world's owner for a list of all registered objects.
Q. What does the error "Try building somewhere else because this area is full" mean? A. This error means that the 10 x 10 meter area that you are building in has reached its maximum data capacity (also known as the cell data limit). You will not be able to place any more objects into this area. You can try deleting other nearby objects in order to make room. Also, the contents of the "Action" and "Description" fields contribute directly to the amount of a data in a cell, so the less you place in these fields, the more objects you will be able to build in a single location.